My first two weeks were both spent at camps! I started with Camp Wakon’Da-Ho in Kentucky. I was nervous as it was my first camp of the summer. Luckily, fellow peace intern, Kate was also there which helped a lot!
So story time now, the day before I was supposed to leave, my car broke down and I had to put it in the shop. With that, I drove my mom’s car. I drive a car while my mom drives a SUV, so the change was weird for a 5 hour drive that came afterwards. Nonetheless, I made it safely to the camp without getting lost.
Back to the camp now, once I got there, I met the directors of the camp who got someone to show me where my cabin was. I got my stuff up into the cabin and got everything set up around my bunk. Now I have to show off my t-shirt quilt of all my previous camp shirts (plus a couple).
I was super excited for all the campers to arrive the next day. Meeting all the counselors and the YLT (Youth Leadership Team) was awesome. They are all amazing people who wanted to make camp seem as normal as possible with all the COVID regulations. Campers started arriving the next morning and once most of them arrived, the official start of camp began! I will say that I did have some camp culture shock and it took me most of the week to get past it, but it was awesome seeing all the campers come together and share a great connection with each other!
There were many great talks and conversations in my small group. Here is a photo of my small group socially distancing as we meet.
There was one night at Vespers (worship) that was really moving with the entire camp. Some campers got up and shared their traumas and that they don’t want to stand alone. It was so moving that there was a place where the campers felt safe enough to talk about these things and all the counselors provided a place to talk to campers afterwards if they needed to talk. It was heavy, but every single camper that was at that camp was strong that night and they are strong every single day.
This camp was the best camp to start off my summer! I am actually getting the chance to go back to Wakon’Da-Ho for a Junior camp in July so I am very excited about that opportunity.